A/N: Here's chapter 2, I haven't gotten any feedback on this story so I don't know if I should continue it or not. Please review !

I'm stuck in place, not able to move my feet. I'm on top of the golden cornucopia, trying to help Peeta climb up but I can't move at all. "Peeta!" I scream. "Climb!" I struggle to reach down and grab his outstretched arm.

"Help me Katniss!" he yells back. The dogs are almost on him and I can't stop them. "Please!"

"I'm trying!" I scream. I try my best to move, but my feet are stuck to the ground. I stare into his eyes as the dogs reach him. His whole face is scared, breaking my heart that I can't save him. He screams as I regain my ability to move. "Peeta!" I watch as a dog bites his leg, ripping a chunk of it off.

"I'm here Katniss!" I hear him yell. Another dog bites his stomach, opening a wound I don't think my mother would be able to close. I can move now, but it's too late to pull Peeta up. "I'm here!"

"Peeta please!" I scream. "Peeta!" I jump off of the cornucopia with an arrow in my bow. I pull it back and shoot one of the dogs in the eye just as it bites Peeta's calf. I gasp when I realise it isn't metal.

"You're alright, you're here with me," Peeta says. My eyes snap open, I sit up quickly and scan around me for danger. I see Peeta and instantly relax.

I wrap my arms around him and cry. "You were dead! The mutts got you and I couldn't save you! My feet were stuck and I tried to save you but I couldn't!" I cry.

"Shh, shh, it's okay Katniss," he whispers as he tries to soothe me. "I'm here with you, nothing can take me from you." He doesn't let go of me, letting me silently sob into his chest.

"It was so real…" I whisper. "It was like I was back in the Games all over again…"

"You're not," Peeta says. "We're alive. We won the Games. Everyone you love is with you. Prim, your mother, Gale, Hazelle, the kids. They're all here with you." I can't help but notice that he didn't name himself in the list of people I love. Maybe I'm not in love with him, but I still love him. After all we've been through, it'd be hard not to love him.

"Even Haymitch is here for you if you ever need him. If what you need is to be drunk, he'll help you," he whispers so seriously I have to laugh.

"Peeta?" I whisper. He hums in response. "Can you just hold me for a few minutes? I'm okay, I just want you to hold me…"

"Of course," he whispers. He gently moves us so we're laying down, and even though it's on the hard dirt of the forest floor, it's still the most comfortable I've been in the past three months. He rubs my back in between my shoulders, relieving all of the tension in my body.

"Thank you," I whisper into his chest. He kisses my forehead in response, making me smile slightly. After a couple of minutes, I let out a shaky breath and get up off of him. He gets up and wipes his pants off. I notice then that he already put his leg back on.

I look around to find that nobody was sleeping. They must have let me sleep in after my watch. Either that, or my nightmare was so bad that they all decided to leave since they couldn't get any more sleep with all of my screaming. It's bright out anyway, probably around eight or nine in the morning.

Everyone is doing something in our small camp. My mother and Prim are picking some kind of plant, a healing herb to help draw out an infection. It's probably for Peeta's hand. Hazelle is getting ready to cook something with Posy, while Gale and the boys are dragging a turkey and a rabbit back.

"I feel useless right now," Peeta whispers to me as we walk towards my mother. "Baking a cake won't help us survive."

I smile. "Cheese buns are off the table too then?" I whisper back, getting a laugh out of him. "Come on, let's go help them gather."

"Are you alright Katniss?" Prim asks. "We heard you screaming and ran over but Peeta beat us there and you seemed to calm down pretty fast, so we went back to gathering."

"Yeah, another nightmare," I say as if that should explain it all. It does in a way. The nightmares after the Hunger Games will be something that haunts me forever.

"We normally can't wake you up," my mother says. "I don't know how Peeta did it, but I'm glad he's here."

"Me too," I say quietly.

"It's been a while since we've even seen you Peeta," my mother says. "How was it for you when you got back to Twelve?"

"Um, it was alright," he says quietly. "I had a lot of space in my house and I got into painting, so that was nice," he says.

I don't say anything, but I know he's lying. He isn't lying about painting but I know that his time back in Twelve since winning the Games wasn't great. Everyone in District Twelve knows how terrible his mother is, but nobody knows what she did to Peeta once he got back.

She wasn't even there whenever we got back to Twelve. Prim, my mother and Gale were there to greet me, but Peeta only had Rye and his father to greet him. His own mother and brother didn't show up. Even though Peeta and I weren't talking at that moment, when I looked over and saw that only his father and Rye showed up, I felt my heart reach out to Peeta.

That is far from the worst of it though.

Our Victory Party the Sunday after we got home was also lacking a few of Peeta's family members. And by a few, I mean all. Not even his father came for Peeta. I found out a few days later when I was trading rabbits with him that he wanted to come but his wife stopped him.

I could tell Peeta was devastated by this. Looking back now, I wish I hadn't stopped talking to Peeta after we got back from the Games, because he had nobody but me left in his life. After winning the Games, not many people will talk to you because they're intimidated by you. Only the Hob people don't do this.

A month after we won the Games was the next time Peeta set foot in my house. His father took him there after an incident with his mother led to her beating him with a metal rolling pin.

Blood was everywhere.

He had multiple cuts on his face, quite deep for something that wasn't a blade. One of the cuts was probably as deep as the one I got on my forehead in the Games. If that was how Peeta felt when he woke up and saw me in the cave, then I feel bad for worrying him that much.

His nose was bleeding profusely too. His lip was split, his eyes were swollen. He looked horrible. He spent the night at my house to make sure he didn't have a concussion. I felt even worse for Peeta when nobody came to pick him up in the morning. I later heard from Mr. Mellark that he wanted to come get Peeta but Mrs. Mellark stopped him. Sound familiar?

That's how Peeta's home life has always been. It wouldn't surprise me if he had other incidents with his mother that weren't as bad. I think for Peeta, the worst part about it is how it feels to have the woman that is supposed to love you, beat you. It has to hurt so much for that to happen. So for her to even ask him that question seemed pointless to me.

"Do you have nightmares like Katniss?" Prim asks.

"Yeah. All of the time. It comes with the Games," Peeta says.

"How come we don't hear you scream at night too?" Prim asks innocently.

"I normally just wake up panicked and look around until I realize where I am. Most of my nightmares are about Katniss, so when I look outside and see your house and know Katniss is inside, that normally calms me down."

We spend twenty or thirty minutes gathering and keeping small talk before we head back to camp. We have to make it to the Capitol, we don't have all day.

"Breakfast," Hazelle says as we walk up. She allows us each to pick off a piece of the turkey while she cleans up the camp. We eat as we pack up the tent and clean up our mess. We didn't run into any mutts out here which is a good sign in my eyes. Maybe we won't find anymore. But who am I kidding, Prim had one in a couple thousand chance at getting picked for the Games and she was still picked. Peeta had low odds too. Our group's luck is not too high to be honest.

Gale is nowhere to be seen but everyone else is at camp. Even Haymitch is helping us clean, which is surprising since I'm sure not even he remembers the last time he cleaned himself.

Gale comes back once we finish with our canteens filled. I don't know where he found the water but I'm grateful. We're going to need it, and we ran out last night.

He puts the water in Peeta's pack and his own since those two are the only ones who brought a backpack. Both boys grab their bags and throw them over their shoulders, securing it in place with the clip on their chests. Gale grabs his bow and turns around.

"Ready?" he asks the group. Everyone gets up and stretches their tiredness off. "Let's go, I'll lead."

He seems angry. Angry at what, I don't know, but he hasn't said a word to me. He kept glaring at Peeta all morning, but to my knowledge, Peeta's been with me all day, so I don't know what he could have said to make Gale mad.

As we follow Gale, I look over at Peeta and see that he's still limping. I know he doesn't have the cream for his leg, but I thought some rest last night without it on would help. He doesn't complain about it, but I can see clearly that it's bothering him.

We walk for about ten minutes before someone else let's us know that Peeta's leg is bothering them too.

"Can you walk a little quieter Peeta?" Gale asks, obviously annoyed. Peeta looks down at his leg and nods.

"Sorry," he says. The way he says it breaks my heart. Gale's not wrong, Peeta is loud, but he doesn't have feeling in his leg. How is he supposed to know how hard he's stepping?

It probably doesn't help that Peeta's backpack is weighing him down too. The more I think about it, the more annoyed I am with Gale, not Peeta. We've been hunting in the woods for years to master being quiet. He wasn't quiet when I first met him either.

I keep my mouth shut though. It's not the time or place to pick an argument with Gale. We walk for thirty minutes through the woods until we reach the train tracks again.

"Nobody else is here," Gale says sadly. He came back to the tracks to see if anyone else got out. Probably to see if we could help them. "Well, we ought to get going then. Less than two day left to make it now."

"What's the plan?" Peeta asks. "I mean, let's be honest. We aren't close enough to the Capitol to reach it in time. The gates will be closed by then."

"I thought the same thing," Haymitch says. "It takes a day to get to the Capitol by train from here. No way in hell do we outrun a train moving two hundred and fifty miles per hour. It's just not possible."

"So then what options do we have left?" I ask. We stand around and think for a second before Peeta speaks.

"Well, we either stay here and test our luck, or head to District Eleven. We can see if they were attacked by mutts too," Peeta says. "If they weren't, we warn them about what's coming and help them fortify the District to keep those mutts out. Either that, or… We can run to District Eight and try to steal a car to drive there, but it will still take at least two days to get there."

"We have to try District Eleven," Gale says. "It's closest to us, and we don't have enough time to drive by car to the Capitol so there's no point in even trying District Eight."

"Okay, which way then?" Hazelle asks.

"South," Gale and I say at the same time. "The sun rises in the east, so that's east," I say as I point. "That's west. So that's north and that's south," I finish pointing.

"Let's go then, we don't have much time as is," Gale says. He starts walking south, leading us into the woods again. It's uneventful from there. We walk for a half hour, take a ten minute break to drink water. We walk for another hour and take another break. Nobody talks, not wanting to risk being loud enough for mutts to hear us if they happen to be around. Gale just silently leads us through the woods until we can see District Eleven. It only took us about five hours.

"Everyone be ready," Peeta says. "We don't know if there's mutts, and if there is, every second it takes for you to run counts."

"Remember our call in the Games?" I ask Peeta. He nods and whistles the four note tune that Rue and I used, and that he and I used. "Good. If we get split up, we whistle that tune until we find each other again. If anyone else gets split up, follow that sound."

"And try to stick with your group leader," Gale says. We approach the gates of District Eleven and enter. At the gate of Eleven is where most of the buildings are, and farther back is where the open fields for agriculture are located. Gale leads us through each of the streets, looking for any sign of survivors before we hear what we've been fearing this whole time.

Mutts.

Three of them are behind us. They don't attack at first, which is odd, but we don't question it. We start running. Peeta picked up Posy and ran with her. Three loud screeches from the mutts, before they start running, let us know that we're being chased. These mutts are different from the ones we saw in our own train tunnels. They look the same but they're acting differently.

"Keep running!" Gale yells.

These mutts are making weird noises in the air as they run. It confuses me until I realise what they're doing.

"They're calling for the others!" I yell.

Little do we know, the others are joining the group. It went from three mutts to about twenty in a minute, and they're all still screeching.

"I have an idea!" Peeta yells as he runs. "They're going to catch us at this rate! Follow me!"

He somehow sprints to the front of the group and turns left. I know he's strong, but he's carrying Posy with a hurt leg. If we weren't running for our lives right now, I'd be impressed. I try to see what he sees but I can't. I just pray he knows what he's doing. We keep following Peeta, and he's right, we're running out of time. The mutts are getting closer with every second that passes.

"The train station!" Peeta yells. "We're hijacking a train!"

This is Peeta's great plan? Hide in a train? It's better than one of those buildings with broken windows, but it's not much better. We'll be surrounded and trapped.

Peeta leads us to the station and sprints to the only train in the station. If these doors are locked, we're dead. He reaches a door and slides it open quickly, helping my mother, Posy, Rory and Prim in first. I jump in with Haymitch, while Gale reaches the door and turns around to help Hazelle and Vick get in before the chaos erupts.

Vick trips and falls, a few feet away from the door. He gets to his feet and starts running but it's too late. The mutts are on him, tearing his clothes away from his skin, and his skin away from his body. The sharp claws tear his right hand off of his arm in just a few seconds. His chest gets a claw down the middle as he falls to his knees, where one of the mutts slashes his neck with it's claw. The scream he releases as he dies will probably haunt us all for the rest of our lives.

Gale tries to run back out but Peeta grabs him and holds him long enough for Haymitch to shut the door. The only sound left is Gale fighting Peeta off of him. Gale's screaming and crying, elbowing Peeta in the ribs twice. Peeta releases him and bends over in pain.

"Vick!" Gale screams. "Vick! Please!" He tries to open the door but Haymitch pulls him off and pins him to the wall.

"Gale, he's gone!" Haymitch yells. "And it sucks! But he's gone! You saw it. We all did. He's gone kid, and going out there is not going to help. Your mother needs you right now!"

Gale looks at Haymitch with tears in his eyes and nods slightly. Hazelle goes over and hugs Gale, holding him. I look over at Peeta and see him staring at the ground with tears in his eyes. I know what he's thinking right now. He just lost his brothers and parents not even twenty four hours ago. He knows exactly what Gale's feeling. I would comfort Gale but that's not what he needs from me right now. He needs to grieve with his family.

I stand next to Peeta and grab his hand, lacing my fingers through his. He looks at me and speaks. "I know we had no other choices and we would all probably be dead right now if we hadn't gone for the train, but I feel so guilty right now," he says quietly. "My plan got Vick killed. It's just like the Games… You feel guilty for surviving even though you did what you had to do."

"And that's why it's pointless to feel guilty," I say. "Feel sad, mad, or sympathetic, but never guilty. What happened back there wasn't anyone's fault. You saved Posy. You saved us again. We all owe you for that."

"I know," he says. "It just hurts. I wish I could trade places with Vick… He didn't deserve that kind of death…"

It takes me a few seconds to respond. "And you did?" I ask gently.

"I deserved that far more than Vick did," Peeta replies. "You guys didn't deserve to lose him either."

"No, we didn't," I say quietly. Haymitch walks over to us and looks at Peeta.

"I think we should give the Everdeens and the Hawthornes some time…" Haymitch says. "Lets uh… Let's go see if we can find any survivors on the train." Peeta frowns and nods.

As I watch Peeta walk away, I see his shoulders slump. He looks so defeated. I know he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, but it still feels so wrong to see him like this. He truly blames himself.

I'll talk to him later about it. I turn around and join the group around Gale. He's done crying but his nose is still running and his eyes are red.

I go over to him and hug him. I say no words, and neither does he. We don't need to. Hazelle grabs her kids and leads them over to the couch in the corner. Posy didn't see what happened so she doesn't know, but Rory won't stop crying.

After a few minutes of us hugging, he pulls back and gives a fake smile. "I should have been in the back… He shouldn't have been the last one on the train…"

"Probably not," I say sadly. "But that's not your fault."

"Then who's fault is it? That was my brother!" Gale says loudly. "And I let him die! I should have ran out there! I should have saved him!"

"And you would be dead too!" I yell. "Hazelle can't lose two of you guys Gale." He looks down for a few seconds before answering.

"I know," he says. "It just hurts Catnip… I feel so guilty right now."

If the situation weren't so serious, I'd find this funny. Peeta said the exact same thing. They both blame themselves for so much, when neither are responsible for any of it.

"Don't feel guilty. Be there for your mom Gale, she needs you. You've been there for her since your Dad died, and she still needs you," I whisper. He nods and looks at his mother and siblings. "They need you."

"Okay," Gale says. "You're right. Thank you," he says as he hugs me one last time and walks over to his family.

We all gasp as we feel the train begin to rumble beneath us. I run to the window and look outside. We're moving. As I begin to turn away, a mutt jumps at the window and bangs into it. I fall back from the sudden scare.

"Are you okay?" Prim asks me. She looks about as scared as me from that. I stand up and nod. A crackling in the ceiling makes us look up.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, we have a long ride to the Capitol so I do suggest you get some rest and head on down to the dining car where you'll find a nice meal waiting for you," Peeta says over some kind of speakers in the ceiling. "And remember to keep your arms inside the train at all times, as we'll be going about two hundred and fifty miles per hour. We'll arrive in about a day, so enjoy the ride."

I smile and shake my head. Only Peeta could make something so serious into a joke like this. I walk towards the car that Haymitch and Peeta left us to go to. I go through each of the doors until I find the two of them sitting in the engine room.

"Ah, Sweetheart, good to see you," Haymitch says. "Did you guys hear our message? We weren't sure if the speakers even worked."

I grin as I respond. "Yeah, we heard it. So we're really on our way?" I ask.

Peeta points to the controls on the panel in front of us and nods. On the board are fourteen buttons, each marked one through thirteen and a letter c for the fourteenth one. The number thirteen is grey while the other buttons are lit up. "Unless the C means something different than Capitol, I think we're on our way."

"So, you guys hungry then?" I ask. "I heard the dining car has a nice meal waiting for us."

Peeta smiles, nods, and stands up. "Yeah, let's go get the others."

The three of us walk back into the living room car and get the others. We walked to the dining car and sat down at the table after Peeta insisted he serve us.

It's nothing fancy, not like the Capitol food and not like the food Peeta and I had on the train going there, but it's better than starving. It only took Peeta ten minutes to get us all food so it wasn't too difficult to make.

Dinner is quiet to say the least. It's too quiet for even me, which is saying something considering I love silence. I know what we're all thinking. Vick should be eating with us right now.

After dinner, we all go through the cars, looking for the bedrooms. There's a very small chance that there's enough bedrooms for each of us, and considering this is District Eleven's Tribute Train, I'm guessing there's only four. One for the mentor, escort, and each tribute, just like ours in Twelve is.

I would say there are more bedrooms because the chefs and attendants have to sleep somewhere, but Peeta and I searched the train on our way back home before the incident that caused us to stop talking, and we couldn't find a single bedroom for them. It made us wonder if they even get any sleep.

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. The Gamemakers don't sleep for weeks when the Hunger Games are live. It sounds crazy, but I learned that they actually have to take a shot before the Games, just like the tributes do. The difference is their shot injects them with modafinil, along with some other kind of drug I can't remember. This keeps them awake and hyperactive, and as long as they get their daily shot, let's them keep running the Games.

The only problem is that they're up all night while the tributes are sleeping. This is boring, and unless the Careers are hunting that night, it normally leads to the Gamemakers becoming impatient. An impatient Gamemaker wants something to happen since they're bored from watching the tributes sleep all night.

It's why the mutts were released in our Games. The Gamemakers were bored and wanted some action, so they forced us into it. At the end of the Games with less than five tributes left is normally when this happens. Since the Career pack is most likely over by then, it becomes much less action and a lot more waiting, and the Capitol nor the Gamemakers like that. The final eight is basically the chapter of the Games where they interview the families of the final eight, and then force them to kill each other.

When Peeta and I learned about what the Gamemakers were forced to do by President Snow in order to keep the Games interesting, it almost made me feel a little remorse for them. Almost. They still enjoy killing children for the fun of the Capitol. That is something Peeta and I can not forgive.

We all go through each of the four bedroom cars and like I predicted, there's no more.

"Okay, so since there's only four bedrooms, why don't we have the Everdeens in one bedroom, Hazelle and Posy in another, Gale and Vick in another and Haymitch in the last?" Peeta asks. "Sounds good?"

"Where will you sleep?" I ask. He shrugs.

"In the living room I guess," he says nonchalantly. I think for a second and respond.

"Sleep in Haymitch's room. He doesn't need a whole bed to himself," I say.

"He sleeps with a knife…" Peeta says. "I don't think I want to risk that."

"Oh yeah…" I say. "Well why don't we have the Hawthornes all in one bedroom so you can have a bed too?"

"I appreciate it Katniss, but I don't want to wake anyone with my nightmares anyway," he says. "I'll probably just end up roaming the train after my first one, so I don't need a bedroom."

I didn't think about my nightmares. I can't sleep with Prim and my mother, they'll never get any rest tonight. I'll end up screaming the whole night.

"I get nightmares too," I say to my mother. "I'll have you guys up the whole night… I need to sleep in the living room too. Peeta's the only one who can get me to stop screaming…" It's true. There's been more than a few times that Prim has had to go get Peeta so they could wake me up from a nightmare. And each time, he left once I woke up, not wanting to feel unwelcome. If only he'd known how many times I almost asked him to stay…

"Okay, that's fine," my mother says to my surprise. "Just be sure to wake one of us up if you guys need anything. You too Peeta."

"Okay," he says. "Thank you."

We all go to our separate rooms, Peeta and I to the living room, and get ready for bed. We find toothbrushes in the bathroom closets, along with towels for our showers. I shower first in my mother and sister's room and brush my teeth after. I find a pair of shorts and a tanktop to wear to bed and put them on. I go to the living room and get Peeta and my bed together. I know I ignored him since we've been back from the Games, but I've missed him holding me like he did in the cave. I felt so… safe. Protected. Loved. I want that again.

As Peeta showers, I push two of the couches together to form an interesting looking bed, and throw some pillows and blankets I found in the storage car onto the couches. It's comfortable enough, and if it gets cold tonight, the extra blankets will keep us warm easily.

Peeta walks out in a pair of shorts and a normal white shirt. It's then that I notice his leg. This is the first time I've actually seen it since the victor's interview in the Capitol, and that was just a glimpse. Peeta catches me staring and stops walking towards the couch.

"Sorry, I'll go get some pants on," he says quietly. I make a noise in my throat that I don't even recognize. I forgot to breathe before I tried to talk.

"No, it's okay," I say quickly. "I just haven't seen it since our interview. I didn't really even remember what it looked like. I couldn't really see it last night, and you always wear pants now, so..."

"Yeah, I know… My mother didn't like seeing it very much. She said it made me look weak, to be a victor that couldn't even survive with all of their limbs or something… I'm not exactly sure what she said but I just know she didn't like it."

"Well I do," I say. I actually do. I won't tell Peeta this but it reminds me of who we fought in those Games. It reminds me of Rue, Thresh, and Foxface. It reminds me that they died in those Games, so it's silly to ever take our lives for granted when they can be taken from us as fast as theirs. It's a direct link to the Games. Probably the only physical thing we took from the Games. All of our scars and burns were fixed using skin grafts. "But I want you to take it off so your leg can rest. I know it's been hurting you these past two days."

"Okay," he says quietly as he sits on the bed I made and removes his leg. "Um, are we sleeping together?" He looks around the living room car and sees that I pushed both couches together.

"If it's okay with you," I whisper. "I… I know that these past few months I didn't talk to you. I wish I didn't do that. You didn't deserve it, you had every right to be mad after I lied to you."

"Katniss, I was wrong," Peeta says. "You had every right to be mad. You lied to save our lives. I understand what you did, and why you did it. I don't blame you anymore. I haven't since the week we've been back in Twelve. I just didn't talk to you because I figured you were mad at me."

"So we spent three months not talking because we both thought the other was mad at us…" I say. He smiles sadly. I pat the spot next to me in the bed I made, inviting him to join me. "Well, let's make up for lost time," I whisper.

He climbs into bed and opens his arms for me. I lay myself on top of him, reveling in the feeling of warmth he always gives off, and slightly berating myself for allowing myself to go three months without him. Maybe I don't love him like he loves me, but I do love him. The only thing confusing me is that I don't love him the same way I love Gale. I know that much. I just can't figure out in what way I love Peeta. Who knows, maybe I do love him romantically and I'm just scared to admit it…

But it doesn't matter. I'll never get married. Never have kids. So romance is pointless. This doesn't stop me from thinking about the boy underneath me, holding me and protecting me from the nightmares that surely would have knocked on the door to my sleep. I drift off to thoughts of that boy quickly.

I wake up without screaming, which is something I haven't had in months. I can feel that Peeta's still asleep, which makes me smile slightly. I can lay here and bask in the comfort he's providing without it seeming weird.

It also gives me time to think. What is it that I want from Peeta? What is it that I want… with Peeta? It's not fair to him that I sleep with him and ask that he holds me when I know he loves me. I'm giving him false hope. Or at least hope for something that won't be for a long time.

It makes me feel guilty. Maybe I'm being dishonest with him. I probably am. I'm probably being dishonest with myself too. I know that these three months without Peeta have been worse than I thought they'd be. I'm rich, my sister will never have to starve for anything, and yet… I feel like I'm starving for something. What? I don't know yet.

I feel Peeta stir beneath me. "Good morning," he whispers in that sleepy voice he has when he wakes up. "No nightmares?"

"None," I say with a smile. "It's been forever since I got a good night's sleep…"

"I'm glad," he says. He makes no move to get up, so I take it as permission to stay curled into his side. "Do you want breakfast?" he says after a few minutes. "I'll go make us something."

"I'm okay," I say. "Can we just stay here until everyone else comes out?"

"Okay," he says softly. After maybe twenty minutes, he asks a question I don't actually know the answer to. "Do you think, if we survive, the Hunger Games will still be a thing? I mean, half of our district was killed… Would it even be worth it for the Capitol to keep it up?"

I don't answer for a few minutes, trying to come up with something to say. Our whole lives, we've dealt with the Games. Hell, we've been in the Games. For them to be over would be… amazing, but so unbelievable. It's hard to think about a world without the Games when they've affected us so much.

"I don't know," I say. "I hope not… But Snow is ruthless; we saw that. We know what he expected of us. Expects of us. What he's willing to do to us. If he's willing to do all of those things to us, why would he stop the Hunger Games? It gives him so much power."

"Always the optimist," Peeta says softly. I give him a scowl which makes him laugh. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. What would you do first if the Hunger Games ended? Like, completely ended."

"I don't know… I guess I'd probably celebrate since Prim would be safe," I say. "My life wouldn't really change much. I've already been in the Games, you know?"

"What happens when Prim gets married though? When she starts living on her own?" Peeta asks.

I've never really thought about it. What will I do when Prim gets married? I've centered my whole life around providing for Prim, that once that's gone, I'll have nothing left. It'll be eight years before that happens but… What is next?

"I've never really thought about it…" I say quietly.

"Oh," Peeta says. I give him a questioning look. "I just figured that you'd marry Gale. You both can hunt, he'll be in the mines. It'd work, and you'd both be happy with each other."

"I'm not going to get married," I say, almost automatically.

"Even with no Games?" he asks.

"If there were no Games," I say. "Then yes, I'd get married eventually. But not to Gale. And I'd still never have kids. The Games could still come back."

"Sure, but so could anything," Peeta says. "The plague could come back. The pack of wolves that destroyed our tesserae could come back. There's an infinite number of bad things that could happen, but an infinite number of good things too… So why let one bad thing stop you from so many good things?"

"Because, maybe it's one good thing that's stopping me from so many bad things," I say quietly. "Maybe the bad outweighs the good."

"Maybe," Peeta says. "I like to think differently though." He doesn't expand on that, and I have nothing to respond with, so we fall back into comfortable silence.

"Good morning," Prim says as she walks into the living room car after a half hour of Peeta holding me. "I didn't hear any screaming… No nightmares?" Prim asks excitedly.

"No nightmares," I reply with a smile.

"That's your cure!" Prim says. I give her a questioning look, asking her to explain. "Love is your cure! The nightmares go away when Peeta's with you. It only makes sense."

"It's not love," I say. "He was just there with me in the Games. He used to hold me like this in the cave. So when I'm having a nightmare about the Games, he makes them go away because he was the only good thing to come out of the Games."

"Could be that," Haymitch says as he walks in. "Or… Could be love…"

"Haymitch," I warn.

"Exactly!" Prim says to Haymitch. "She'll never admit it, but she loves Peeta. She loves me and I can't get her nightmares to go away, but she loves Peeta."

"I think so too," Haymitch says as he goes to the dining car.

"Leave her alone," my mother says as everyone else but Gale walks into the living car. I can feel Peeta loosen his arms around me, and can tell exactly what that means. I'm free to go if I want to.

He knows I don't like people seeing us together like this. Especially since the Victor's Party when we got home, where Haymitch told us we needed to act madly in love to keep Snow off of our backs.

This also makes me feel terrible. Because he thinks I'm just using him, and now that people are around, I'd be too embarrassed to be with him right now. He held me all night, keeping the nightmares away, and expects me to just leave him in the morning now that I'm awake. What does that say about me?

I place a hand on his arm that's around me, letting him know that I'm not leaving. He tightens his arms gently and continues the patterns he was tracing on my back.

Gale walks into the living room car a few minutes later and shoots me a dirty look. I don't even know what I did. I give him a confused look back, but he just walks away.

"Think it's breakfast time?" Peeta asks. My stomach does feel pretty empty… I nod and get off of Peeta, grabbing his leg and handing it to him so he can put it on. He smiles and thanks me.

I watch as he latches it on and feel a pang of sadness hit my heart. How can someone who's been through so much pain be so strong? His parents might be dead… His brothers probably suffered the same fate. His leg is just the cherry on top of all the pain he's been through, but it still makes me feel horrible.

He gets off of the bed I made and starts taking it apart and turning it back into two couches. I help him push the couch back to the other corner, and together we head to the dining car.

When we walk into the car, everyone's seated but Gale. He looks angry, specifically at Peeta. He is just staring at him, even after Peeta sat down.

We eat a silent breakfast. Nobody is over Vick's death, and I don't think we will be in a long time. Gale continues his side eyes towards Peeta, but doesn't say a word.

"We have two more hours until we arrive," Haymitch says once everyone is done eating. "We need to be sure not to split up. These Capitolites, they don't like us District citizens. They won't take kindly to having to share their homes with us or their food with us. So just be careful."

"You think they'll be mad at us too?" Peeta asks. "We're victors, and this is our family… I don't think they'll be angry at us."

"Hmm, maybe not," Haymitch says. "But what will Snow say about us while we're there? What will they say? We'll never know until we get there, but—"

An explosion in the front of the train knocks us off of our feet, flinging us everywhere. I bang my shoulder into the side of the wall, probably dislocating it. My ears won't stop ringing, giving me flashbacks to the Games.

"Everyone alright?" Peeta yells. I look in the direction I hear his voice come from, but there's already so much smoke I can't see him. "We have to get out of here!"

I slowly get up, trying not to think about the pain my shoulder is in. There's too much smoke to be breathing in here. There has to be a fire somewhere in the train from the explosion. I've had enough fire in my life.

"Hazelle?" Peeta yells. He's pulling people out of the train. He seems to be the only one in the right mindset at the moment. I slowly get to my knees and cough. I feel lightheaded and wobbly.

Peeta grabs Rory and hands him to Hazelle by the time I'm standing, slightly leaning against the wall. "Katniss!" he yells as he runs towards me.

He wraps an arm around my waist and supports me as I walk towards the exit. I look down at the steps and see Gale with his arms out, waiting for me to jump.

He catches me and carefully puts me down. I look back up at Peeta but don't see him. I look around, seeing Haymitch, my mother, Prim, Hazelle, and Rory… Why is he still in there? Posy.

Gale's already running into the train, realizing what I've realized. Posy's in there, and she could be dying at this moment. I won't be any help in there, not with my hearing and my shoulder, so I stay back. It's torture, thinking about what's going on in that train.

The seconds tick by, into minutes until finally Gale comes out of the train with a coughing Posy. The only problem is Peeta isn't behind them.

"Where's Peeta?" I ask. Gale shakes his head sadly.

"I don't know, I lost him after he handed me Posy!" Gale yells back as he runs from the flames and smoke of the train.

"Peeta!" I scream. I start to run back into the train but Gale stops me. "Peeta, come on! Hurry!" I scream as Gale holds me back. After a minute, Gale gets angry and yanks my arm back.

"He's gone Katniss!" Gale yells. "And trust me, I know how this feels but… We have to go…"

"I can't!" I yell. "You guys go, I'm getting Peeta!" I elbow Gale in the gut but he doesn't budge. I struggle until I'm sobbing. "Please!"

"Katniss!" Gale yells. "Stop!"

I can't even see anymore. My tears blind my grey, stormy eyes. "Peeta," I whisper between sobs. Peeta's gone. He's burnt up, like the rest of my world. The Girl on Fire is what they call me, so of course his fate would be to die in a burning train. I couldn't save him. I wasn't strong enough. Peeta was always the strong one.

"Peeta?" Gale asks as he lets go of me. I wipe my eyes and turn around. "You're still alive!"

"Oh my god, Peeta!" I yell as I run towards him. There's soot and ash in his hair and all over him but I don't care. His prosthetic leg looks twisted and mangled. I run until he's in front of me and wrap my arms around his body, crying into his dirty shirt. "I thought I lost you!"

"Can't get rid of me that easily," he says in a croaky voice. His throat must be dry from how long he was in the burning train. He starts coughing uncontrollably for a few seconds.

"Don't do that again!" I cry.

"I had to get Posy," Peeta whispers. "I couldn't let another Hawthorne die because of me…"

"Why were you in there so long?" I ask into his shirt, grabbing two handfuls of it and holding on to his shirt tightly. He squeezes me tighter for a second which scares me more. I'm not going to like why.

"A piece of wood fell from the ceiling… I tried to dodge it, but I was too slow. It still hit my leg," he says as he shows me his mangled prosthetic leg. "The wood was too heavy for me to pick up, so I couldn't get it off. I had to wait for it to burn up so it would crumble enough that I could pick it up…"

"I was so scared…" I whisper. He squeezes me gently and coughs some more before answering.

"Don't be, I'm right here," he says softly. "I'm not going anywhere." He holds me for a few minutes, allowing me to compose myself before letting go.

"My shoulder is dislocated," I say to him. "I need it popped back in…" Peeta grabs it and pops it back in with no warning. I scream for a second because I wasn't expecting it. "Really?" I ask as I move my arms around, making sure it's okay.

"It worked, didn't it?" Peeta asks playfully. I punch him in the arm but still end up cracking a smile.

"I didn't think about it," Haymitch says once I calm down enough to talk. "But this train wasn't approved by the Capitol. The trains are all boobytrapped with mines, much like the arena's. If a train isn't approved by the Capitol, the mines will go off once we reach a certain spot on the train tracks. Looks like that was our spot."

"So now what?" I ask. "We had less than two hours, but that's still about five hundred miles. We can't run it."

"No, but we can go to District 2. Hope they allow us to borrow a train?" Haymitch says. "Either that, or we try to survive out here until someone finds us."

"Surviving is the easy part. I'm worried about someone finding us. How long will that take?" Gale asks.

"Weeks. Months. Never," Haymitch says. "Who knows? Not me, that's for sure."

"We don't have months," I say. "How far's District 2 from here? Do you know?"

Haymitch nods. "There's some things I haven't told you guys, and I'll get to talking on our way there, but see that symbol over there?" He points to a tree with a red symbol. It's a mockingjay. "Well, that means we're close to District 2. Although I'm surprised to see they have people willing to rebel."

"Rebel?" I ask.

"Rebel. You and Peeta don't know it, but… You sparked this nation. The Districts are a flame, and Snow knows that if he doesn't put this fire you sparked out, the Capitol is looking at another war," Haymitch says.

"When were you going to tell us?" Peeta asks as we walk in the direction Haymitch leads us.

"When? Probably wasn't going to tell you kids. Snow had eyes on you at all times. Once you won the Games, you were spied on and listened to from the moment you woke up in those rooms," Haymitch says.

"So we sparked a rebellion, and you weren't going to tell us about it?" I ask. "Great. Thanks for that."

"How did you want me to tell you? Did you want me to throw away all of our plans to ensure you guys knew what was going on?" Haymitch asks, getting annoyed. "We couldn't. It was too risky."

"So why are you telling us now?" Gale asks.

"Because it's over. We don't even have a District to rebel from the Capitol anymore," Haymitch says. "This 'accident' was timed perfectly. I'm not saying Snow did it on purpose, but it is too much of a coincidence for me to think otherwise."

"I didn't even think about it like that…" I say.

"Those mockingjay symbols on the trees were supposed to be signs. The Capitol has cameras and listening devices a mile out of the forest. If you saw a mockingjay symbol, it meant that they weren't watching you anymore," Haymitch says. "They normally caught anyone who tried to make it…"

"I didn't think District 2 had rebels though. Not with how they treat the Games. But I guess even they are sick of their children dying every year," Haymitch says.

"I see it," Hazelle says. She points straight ahead, towards District 2. "We're close."

We walk towards District 2, and after ten minutes, finally make it to the gates. We enter quietly, Peeta first, so we can see if there's mutts.

"Coast cleared, but it's deserted…" Peeta says as he takes a few more steps. "Mutts hit here too."

"Train station," Haymitch says. "We need to steal another train." Haymitch leads the way to the train station. He's the most familiar with District 2 out of us all.

He leads us through the buildings, so hopefully the mutts won't find us if there is any here. I can't imagine there will be none. Why would everyone leave if the mutts didn't come? We walk outside, where we're close to the train station.

As we walk, we hear footsteps behind us, which causes me to turn around. Peeta and Gale are both being held at gunpoint by a group of five men in black clothing. Arms wrapped around each of their necks.

"Stop moving or we'll shoot!" One of them screams.

A/N: Review please, I'd love to know what you guys think! Anything I could do better? Hope you enjoyed! -JayOnFF